I have always had a thing for finding good deals, and then flipping them for a profit. I don't know what it is, but I get a rush out of it. I also enjoy garage sale hunting, looking for those hidden gems.
I think I got hooked when my dad found a moped for me. He found it at a garage sale, and gave it to me for my birthday! He got it for $75! I ended up using it for a few months then flipping it for $450.
Anyway, I got my hands on a few good deals this black Friday. I should make a nice return on my investment! :) I got up pretty early ~3am! Thats worth at least a few hundy.
Off to get my poker on...
Saturday, November 29, 2008
Black Friday - Puts money in my pocket!
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9 comments:
Happy Thanksgiving Kekoa! Yes, I am one of the 3 people who reads your blog from time to time lol.
I can relate about the black friday deals. I remember when the Wii first came out. I was able to score about 3 and flip them for a quick $250 profit each. I usually find a great deal every year to flip in addition to my normal business products, but this year I am about to call it quits. I am getting so tired of eBay and retail in general.
I am an eBay powerseller, and I have been doing it for about 4 years. But it is becoming a pain. You have to pay feebay outrageous fees now. On top of that you have to deal with dumb questions all day, and scammers, and everything else. Not to mention business and sales taxes, etc. etc.
I have been really considering moving on, and doing something new other than retail and digital stuff.
I don't get a thrill from the work anymore. I just get excited by ideas, and when an idea is successful (such as flipping something for hundreds). The work itself gets so annoying and old.
I feel like personally I am evolving as an entrepreneur. I once read in a book that the entrepreneur needs to stay on top of his business, not in his business. By working I feel like we get sucked into it too much. Instead I wish I had people doing all the work and I just dictated like most CEO's do. I get excited by ideas, but I lose interest when I start trying to do the ideas. If I had people to do that for me, I think it would be better.
But I have yet to make that leap, simply because the way my business is now, if I hired people it wouldn't be profitable.
That is why I want a change. I want something big. I want a big idea, and a big money maker.
Is that how you feel? I relate to you so much, because we think just alike, we are even close to the same age. Are you starting to feel this yet in your entrepreneurial journey?
We have both made good money online and eBay. But will we ever make the leap from making decent money, to making millions? And if so, how and when? That is what I am after. Are you starting to think like this yet? Are you getting bored of the whole eBook and retail game yet? In my opinion we are cutting ourselves short. To much work, not enough return if you ask me. I know it makes decent money, but it also takes a lot of time.
Are we ever going to move beyond selling general stuff, and make a serious brandable company?
Do you have a partner in your business? That is one thing I sometimes feel like I lack to make it big. I ponder sometimes the big guys, and realize that most great entrepreneurs also had a great partner. Steve Jobs had Steve Woz, Bill Gates had Paul Allen, Hewlett had Packard, etc. The list goes on and on.
Anyways, best of luck to you!
Ben
I wasn't able to get a darn thing. I am over here in Florida, and things were pretty hectic.
You remind me of a guy I knew in college, he always knew how to find the deals and then profit with them.
Also what kind of poker do you play? I love poker!
Kekoa! I'm the third person who checks your blogs from time to time. LOL. There used to be a whole slew of people who hated your guts simply because you did well on eBay. Those people will never be truly wealthy because they are too busy working their 9-to-5 J-O-Bs and not learning about passive and residual income opportunities.
Have you read a Millionaire Mind, by T. Harv Eker? He's one of my heroes, along with one of your locals, Robert T. Kiyosaki (I just bought that $195 cash flow game, but that's another story). Anyway, this T. Harv Eker guy basically tells you to admire wealthy people. When you admire and emulate, you will someday attain their status. (That's not his quote, that's mine.) Essentially, you've got to start hanging out with affluent people to start getting some of that affluence. Success breeds success. Now I'm not saying you're wealthy. You have a long way to go, baby. (Put some money down on a million dollar property and we can talk again.) What I am saying is that I admire you. At your age, you've got a great start to a wealthy future.
Anyway, I'm glad to see you're back. I still admire your young entrepreneurial spirit. So that brings me to why I'm writing....
What's happened since your eBay days? Get me in on your next big thing.
Bye for now, my cyber friend,
MERMAID
Ben:
You and I really are alike. I found myself agreeing with almost every single point you mention. I too am an idea guy, I literally come up with ideas ALL the time.
Sometimes I'll come up with ideas, and it takes away from the current projects at hand. That's one thing I need to work on. Not letting the excitement of new ideas, overtake the current work at hand.
I too sell "physical products", but am switching over to focusing my efforts on 100% digital products and services. I think that people now more than ever are searching for information. Information that we can provide for a nice little fee :)
I also want to land that big idea, that big moneymaker. However I haven't quite discovered it yet. I find the more work I put it, the ideas I get are evolve. When I first started, my ideas were small in nature. Now my ideas are, six figure ideas. The more I evolve, the more my ideas will evolve. Hopefully they evolve to million dollar ideas.
Just a little while ago, I had so many different projects that I was working on, that it was slowing me down. I decided to work on just one project at a time, while maintaining my residual income streams.
Being organized is HUGE, this is an absolute must if we really want to be wealthy. I now love being organized, I am almost obsessed with it.
As for your point on moving on, I actually do want to move on, but only when I have a plan.
I know what you mean, whay you say "the thrill is gone". The key is to try and figure out how to make it fun again. Figure out a way to make what you do fun again. Whether that means, to do something new entirely, or put a new twist on what you do.
Man, I could write all day on my evolution as an entrepreneur, but I gotta go. But I think you get my drift...
In conclusion, I would say consolidate your efforts on the biggest ideas that make the journey fun (and profitable). Maintain the passive/residual income streams that you currently have, and just build on to those.
Good luck with your business...
Hey Linda,
That's too bad that you couldn't get anything, there was a bunch of deals. Ah, there's always next time.
As for poker, I play limit, spread limit (5-150), and no limit holdem. I love the game, and love the education and knowledge I gain from playing it. There are so many parallels to business, and life in general, that I notice when playing poker. It definitely sharpens my business, and life skills.
Who knows, maybe we can play a game of poker sometime. I've been to Orlando for the whole Disney World vacation thing. Definitely Good times.
Take care...
Hey Mermaid,
You are spot on your comments.
I just went out and got the T. Harv Eker book, so far, amazing.
I gotta run, but I'll fill you in on more things in a bit.
Take it easy, Kekoa!
Kekoa, passive and residual income is the key to wealth. If you know what you're doing, you can legally and ethically pay 0 percent taxes. Employees pay 50% taxes, stock investors pay 20 percent capital gains taxes, and the smart ones look for a postive cash flow to get out of the cubicles.
BTW, glad you like T. Harv. Eker's book.
I suggest you run out and pay a couple of hundred bucks for Robert T. Kiyosaki's Cashflow 101 game. It's a hefty price, but a TREMENDOUSLY valuable lesson that will come after hours of play.
Aloha from San Francisco,
MERMAID
To Ben and Kekoa:
First off, Ben I TOTALLY feel your pain brother. I've been a silver powerseller for about 2 yeas but am totally burnt out. It is reflected in my feedback, my communication went down and my shipping score went down because 1) i can't stand waking up to 20 emails either asking the same question or just something i already answered in the email and 2) I'm just ready for something new. I love ebay, i've been able to buy nice things and visit nice places in which otherwise I would not have been able to. But running a retail store out of my home is anything BUT glamerous.. boxes everywhere, shipping supplies everywhere and i always feel like i'm at work. So when my GF is over, I end up and just respond to emails or do other misc ebay "stuff" ugh...I also want to move on, but consider this. If you are making a full time income on ebay, why move on? The key is to leverage your time! I'm in the process of hiring some help to handle my customer service, and my shipping. 2 things I HATE the most, i can hire some help for 10bucks an hour to do my shipping and customer service and I will have more time to venture into other avenues.
Just something to think about! Outsource your time.. we're the type of people who use time wisely to come up with more money making ideas.. and by us doing monotonous things such as shipping and responding to emails is wasting time thus taking money out of our pockets.. OUTSOURCE! :)
Hope this is some encouragement!
Kekoa, I remember when you had less then 500 (back in april/may 2006) feedback..I was one of your first buyers.. I hope you the best of success.
Hello Again Kekoa & Anonymous! Thanks for the replies! (this is Ben again)
----To the Anonymous eBay Powerseller----
I totally relate 100%, and I too am a silver ps. Today I rolled my eyes as I seen the 5 dumb emails "Message from ebay member regarding...". Everytime I get one of those I get this drop in my stomach and think to myself, "Great, I wonder what dumb question or complaint this is today." I mean the dumbest stuff. All the time I get asked "where is my item" despite the fact that paypal sends them an email w/ tracking number after I print the labels using multiorder shipping, not to mention the fact that I also get delivery conf. on all items and can see if it has been delivered. These people drive me mad!! If they took 2 seconds to read the listing, or update their email addresses with paypal it would make my life so much easier.
Anyways, I am also tired of the mess in my tiny one bedroom apartment with me and my wife living there. USPS boxes, tape, newspaper for stuffing, loads of different sized inventory, etc. I could get a big warehouse but $1,000 or more a month takes a huge chunk out of my profits.
I am tired of the eBay rules changing, and I am sorry but they are just plain dumb for getting rid of digital delivery. I was making really good off digital delivery for my digital stuff before that because of the international customers. Classified ads are a joke! I am also tired of dealing with dumb and scamming buyers, the occasional dumb feedback, and more.
I agree with the outsourcing idea, and I too thought about that. But as of right now it is just me (and my wife helps some too). I have no employees, and quite frankly I am a little afraid of taking that leap due to the extra complications it makes for the business (payroll, taxes, etc.). I don't know if it is yet worth it profit wise to justify it. Also it is scary when all the big boys (walmart, etc.) are having these crazy deals it makes it harder to compete, and eBay's declining traffic.
Not only that, but the retail market in general is getting bad right now due to the lousy economy. I got rid of the last of my physical inventory in December, and I had to lower the prices to encourage buying just to get rid of it-but I did still make a profit. Now I am only doing digital and website stuff.
That is the thing with the retail stuff that I have been questioning lately. Is it worth it anymore? To really grow means getting employees, getting a big warehouse, new taxes (added bookkeeping expense), and more liabilities, more emails, more complaints. Add that to a failing economy and decreased spending, and add to that eBay's uncertain nature and ever increasing fees and shipping fees, and I feel like I might be done with it. It is hard enough finding a constant supply of high profit margin products to sell without all that other stuff mixed in.
For the last half of December I have been trying to focus more on websites and revenue. I feel like it is a way more efficient way of making money. There is NO WAY to make $80,000-100,000 in retail by yourself. You would have to have employees. But it can be done with a website. That is why I am leading towards that. I want to build income that can run itself, and I can take time off and not deal with dumb questions and still have money coming in. Plus my wife and I plan to buy a house this year, so I am not wanting to invest a bunch in inventory that may not sell fast enough.
Not to mention the fact that this year the state I live in is thinking of passing a law that requires you to source sales tax to the county/city that the item is shipped to if the sale occurs in your state! Crazy! So if I sell in my own state, I will have to go and look up their individual local sales tax rate in their county/city instead of just using mine. This stuff is killing the economy.
The website thing would take care of bookkeeping complexities, no more dumb emails, and I could manage it myself. But it isn't easy that's for sure. The web is flooded with websites and content. I have been putting a lot of effort into it, and had some good days with ad revenue, but some days are low and it is hard to stay motivated.
I have some ideas about something big, but it would require a lot of marketing, invetment, good coding/scripts, and other stuff like that-so I tend to not go after the "big" ideas and instead I am just focusing on trying some smaller website ideas.
So that is where I am right now. I have so much confusion and indecision right now. I want to throw the retail stuff away (I think) and focus only on websites. But it is hard doing this all yourself sometimes. Plus the retail stuff does bring money still.
Sometimes I wish I knew some people locally with the same drive and brains as you and Kekoa. Then perhaps we could make a real corp, divide the profits, and hire people to do the dumb stuff. We could put all of our brains together and make something BIG.
Hang in there "Anonymous" and best of luck to you!
---To Kekoa---
Man I know you have been saying positive stuff and you haven't really lashed out at eBay for banning your one account, but it was just plain WRONG what they did. They are dumb, and as far as I am concerned the eBay trend is almost over.
I remember you had so many haters out there too. You were the top of the pulse, and I still remember looking at your listing at your "purchases" and completed items and thinking, "HOLY CRAP." That was a great accomplishment getting all those sales-and it motivated me to work harder on eBay. You are one of the reasons I got into digital stuff. And if you did figure that out with the pulse (by the way did you do that or did you buy that script), that was genius. Everyone else was just hating because they couldn't figure out how you did it. Pure Genius!
It just shows you how out of touch eBay is--going around and suspending everyone. I can't wait until the day I never sell on the site again. But for now I will keep up my digital stuff for at least 3-6 months since it still makes money. After that, I am going to evaluate the website stuff I have been doing a little more. If it works out, I will probably completely quit retail and focus 100% of my energy on that.
I love entrepreneurial stories, and it motivates me to try harder. I want to have one of those rags to riches stories one day. I have the rags part, now I just need to get the riches part down. But I look at my current situation and think, there is no way that is going to happen just selling digital stuff and physical products on eBay. I have made good money, not GREAT money. I haven't broken 6 digits yet in savings. Too much work, too much time, not enough profits.
I sometimes reflect on my path right now, and think about where I am going, what kind of legacy have I created, is this eBay stuff going to ever grow BIG. I just don't see it, which is why I want to change directions. I am 26 right now, and I am ready to get into my lifetime career of something BIG. Something I can either grow and manage myself, or flip to a company like Google for millions.
PS- Speaking of great entrepreneurs, I am sad to say that I don't think Mr. Steve Jobs will be with us much longer. Pancreatic cancer kills fast, and when they look really skinny like that...well I think he only has a few months left at the most. God bless him. It is bad, because he just made his comeback with Apple ipods and Iphone too!
Best of luck Kekoa! I hope 2009 is a year of change, and hopefully, BIG PROFITS! Good luck on your journey everyone!
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